Comments

My pet hate was a café over the road that sold panini's. I'm not sure whether I was more offended by the apostrophe or the double plural. Hadn't an ounce of sympathy when they closed down. Needless to say, I never darkened their door.

Well you'd get my vote! But as well as misused apostrophes could you please also outlaw all those signs that say things like "This door is alarmed", to which the only appropriate response is "Why? What has alarmed it?"

Gosh how annoying, especially as it was a double mistake with the spelling. I would have to have told them. As you say, it isn' t difficult so incorrect grammar or spelling makes me rather angry, not to mention those who cannot even say words correctly, like mischievous....ooh it makes me so mad!

I love being cross about grammar! They call me Mrs Red Pen at work! I really don't like people saying they are bored of it - no they are not. They are bored with it!!Trouble is I am no good at paragraph spacing apparently - just trying to show my human side, I call it!

My husband is adamant that he was never taught such things at school. He attended one of the first comprehensive schools in London, and their teaching seems to have been odd, to say the least. You can only blame someone for getting something wrong if they have been told the correct way in the first place, after all. I once shared a house with an teacher (Head of English) who was incapable of completing the Daily Mail crossword (the easy one on the back!). She was a Londoner, too. Perhaps she had attended the same school!

Add to the list one a dear friend and colleague regularly muddles - loose instead of lose; it really gives a sentence a completely different meaning! And spotted on freecycle yesterday...a chest of draws! What?! :-)

BRAVO Sue!! All the way from Australia. My absolute pet hate. Fantastic link. I'm going to put it on my Face Book page where I've ranted about it once before.Like most teachers I expect, I've spent hours trying to get this message through to kids but when their parents can't understand it....! The problem is, you have to actually stop and think. You actually have to know you have to stop and think ! Too much trouble in this world where everyone is in a hurry.CheersHelenPS "breath and breathe" are very problematic for most I'm afraid too. If only people would stop, take a deep breath, then slowly breathe out they might stop murdering our language !

Sue, this is very timely. I was watching an episode of Inspector Lewis last night and the wonderful Sgt. Hathaway brings up this very subject! And they show some farm signs and a bakery window with the wrongly-used apostrophes. I rather thought it was an exaggeration to find them in painted signs...but I suppose it wasn't, after all.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I swear my blood pressure goes through the roof every time I see apostrophe abuse. It's a pity I can't think of any good examples at the moment. If you later receive a comment with a bunch of gibberish in it, it will be me sharing the horror. So glad someone else understands...

I'll vote for you too! You wonder why they chose to put the apostrophes in the plural of pasty but not for the soft drinks. I mean, be consistent! Can I add another one into the mix - the use of the apostrophe in the possessive 'its', which makes me grind my teeth...Phew! Glad I got that off my chest... x

My favourite apostrophe calamity happened when I was working in the bookshop. A customer (renowned for being a bit of a battleaxe) was ranting on about 'how can children learn proper grammar when published books don't have the apostrophe on the cover placed correctly'. To my eternal joy, I pointed out to her that the cover was correct.

Watch out smug women!!

(I'm feeling a little sympathetic, as I have huge trouble spelling definitely...)

Count me in as well please.Rachel, I'm with you on the "bored with" issue as well. Another little niggle that seems to be building up into rant-worthy proportions is the use of then when it should be than. More noticeable in print THAN in spoken word.

ha ha that's funny. I have to say, I am a bit of an accidental apostrophe abuser, although I pride myself on my excellent spelling. Imagine my distress to find I had been spelling definately wrong all these years.....

Oh drat, as I was reading this I really wanted to add 'definitely' to your list, I'm afraid it drives me nuts when I see that one. Perhaps you could put learning the difference between 'there' and 'their' on your manifesto instead?

More and more you find these mistakes as well as spelling mistakes in newspapers and books too. My brother in law used to run a sports centre and he would leave messages for the patrons on chalk boards facing the doorway - he would always make either a spelling mistake or punctuation mistake - he said it brought the message to the attention of the patrons - especially as they would point out to each other such mistakes - his message tended to get read by all. I wonder if shop owners do the same thing?

Harmony and Rosie, no we didn't buy the pasty's; we had pork pie's instead :D

Coffee Lady, one of the reasons I was glad to say goodbye to my children's primary school in July was because I would no longer have to see the sign on the door which read 'would footballer's please take off their boots before coming inside'.

I definately loose it when I see their should of been an apostrophe but its not their.(sorry)My real pet hate is acronyms, which people really feel they need to fit an apostrophe into: CDs, DVDs, SATs, ASBOs.

I love this post and the comments received!! As a foreigner, I think that we are taught more English grammar when we learn English abroad than what you guys get here. Why is that? I also find these mistakes irritating (and I'm not English!), x Pati

I must be the only person on here that finds spelling and grammar difficult. I agree that with advertising, signs and printed work there is no excuse for errors but I don't agree with the "it's not difficult" comment, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. I have re-worded and re-read this comment in the hope there is no spelling or grammar mistakes or a mis-placed apostrophe, if there is then I apologise to all of you out there that will be angered by it.

Faye, I re-word and re-read every single thing I post. I frequently go back and edit posts. You say you find grammar and spelling difficult and yet you have made no mistakes because you took care to get right. I wish signwriters would take the same trouble.

Cathleen, a Cornish pasty is a savoury hand pie. The traditional filling consists of chunks of beef with sliced onion, potato and swede (rutabaga). It is seasoned well with salt and pepper. They were traditionally made for the miners to take down the tin mines in Cornwall. They are delicious, but best enjoyed in Cornwall in my opinion.

OH, I am so with you on this one! I hate it when I see apostrophes used incorrectly! Another pet peeve is the overuse of quotation marks. On one of our state ferries, there is a sign in the cafeteria that says: "Ice Water". Is it ice water or is it not? If it is, then WHY use quotation marks? If it isn't then why call it Ice Water? It drives me crazy every time I take the ferry!

By the way, I LOVE Cornish Pasties and ate them every day for lunch when I visited England!

Your post and comments made me smile as I have a bit of a thing about the apostrophe, too :)My local garage goes one better.....they billed me for replacing the brake,s and wiper,s on my car. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

This would have driven me nuts too! I once left a hotel bar because I couldn't choose from their menu that was littered with spelling errors and misplaced apostrophes - the food looked good but I'd not have been able to swallow for indigation and annoyance!

I once saw starwberrie's advertised for sale in Norfolk... I still shudder!